Extinguished
by Luthienne
Summary: This is the story of the pro-bending championship match from Episode 6 from the perspective of Kizu, the firebender for the Wolfbats. Contains Tahno/OC.


**DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I do not own the world, characters, or ideas of the Legend of Korra.**

**Note: Kizu is my own character, and she has replaced Shaozu as the firebender for the Wolfbats.**

**Extinguished**

I was once the queen of the Pro-Bending Arena. Tahno, Ming, and I, the Wolfbats, had won three championships in a row. We were a formidable team and an unstoppable force.

We stood in the locker room, waiting to charge into the arena for our final match of the tournament. "You said the refs are taken care of?" Ming asked, tying on his green earthbender's belt.

Tahno nodded, his perfectly coiffed forelock waving slightly. "Of course. There is no possible way for us to lose this match."

I couldn't help but feel ashamed. "Shouldn't we be able to win on our own?" I asked. "We've proven ourselves hundreds of times. Tonight shouldn't be any different."

"Tonight, dear Kizu," said Tahno, sliding an arm around my armored waist, "will not be like any other match. We are up against the Avatar and the pair of brothers she's snared, and we _cannot_ lose."

Tahno trusted in himself, his hair, and his superior waterbending to get him out of any situation. Occasionally, he trusted in me, and sometimes in Ming, but he was his own best friend and took care of himself. I had never seen him worry like this before. Whatever the Avatar had done to him, it must have injured him—or maybe just his pride. Tahno's pride is an entity in itself.

"I agree with Kizu," said Ming. "We can do it ourselves."

Tahno narrowed his black-lined eyes. "Who's the captain here?"

Ming and I exchanged glances and sighed. "You are," we said in unison.

"That's right," Tahno said. "And I am captain for a reason. I call the shots here, not you."

He was probably right. He usually was, so I didn't push it. Ming donned his wolfbat wings and mask and headed towards the entrance platform, giving us a moment alone.

"I'm sorry, Kizu," he said, but the glint in his eyes said he wasn't. "I just don't want you to worry. I've taken care of everything."

I didn't quite believe him, but I found myself unable to argue when he took my face in his hands and kissed me. "You know I love you best," he whispered, grazing my ear with his lips.

At any other moment of the day, I wouldn't have believed it, but standing there, feeling his warm hands through my protective gear, his curved lips inches from mine, I did.

The signal for our entrance sounded, and we shared one last kiss before joining Ming on the platform.

We glided into the arena amid a blaze of fireworks and a wave of cheers and applause. As the lights flashed, I forgot all petty arguments and remembered why I became a pro-bender. Forget food, I could live on that peculiar rush of nervousness and energy that courses through me before I throw my first fireball of the night. I felt alive, and I felt ready.

We squared off against the Fire Ferrets—the Avatar and her pals. She didn't look very extraordinary—sure, she was fit, but so was everyone in the pro-bending world. I didn't know what the fighting brothers saw in her.

I could see, however, what she saw in them. The earthbender looked a little too much like an excited puppy, but the firebender looked like my kind of guy—dark, brooding, quietly radiating power. I couldn't wait to blast him.

As soon as the bell rang, I became distantly aware of Tahno launching himself at the Avatar and Ming firing discs at the firebender, but my mind was focused on my attack. I swung my left leg up in a kick, spewing fire from the sole of my foot. The earthbender dodged it—barely. I flipped over one of his discs and landed in the ready position, flames warming my fists—

He spun another disc at the ropes, and it ricocheted, catching me squarely in the stomach. I fell flat on my face, unable to breathe. My gear had barely absorbed the shock of his attack.

I _was_ going to play fair, but that was before they embarrassed me.

Tahno unleashed an illegal hose of water on the stupid earthbender—Bolin—and knocked him into the third section. I let out a cheer and as our team advanced into Fire Ferret territory.

The firebender—Mako—protested the call, or lack thereof, but the ref only shrugged. It looked like Tahno really had taken care of everything.

Tahno and I launched a double attack. He slid a patch of ice under Bolin's feet, and I finished him off with a burst of flame. He barely had time to wrinkle his pug nose before he was over the edge and splashing into the drink.

Tahno flashed me a wink before we fought the two remaining Fire Ferrets.

Firebending, as I learned at an early age, is the highest art. We generate our element, unlike other benders, who can only manipulate instances of their elements that already exist. Our emotions, our heat, and our inner strength flow together in perfect bursts of energy.

As much as I enjoy overpowering earthbenders and waterbenders, I love fighting other firebenders the most. Mako was no exception. His form, his grace, his peculiar dodge-and-punch style…it was beautiful to watch, and even more beautiful to destroy.

We cornered the two of them into the third section. Tahno, Ming, and I all attacked the Avatar, and Mako stepped in front of her, adopting a protective stance. He took the full brunt of my flames, and they both fell over the edge.

A first round knock-out against the season's hottest team in the championship tournament! That was a first, even for us. I took a bow as the crowd cheered. Sure, we had slipped a few—ahem—_extra_ moves in there, but those Ferrets were so damn infuriating I didn't feel bad about our behavior.

We were ready to receive our prizes when the announcer stopped his incredulous praise and cried, "Hold on a second, folks! Scratch that! The Ferrets are still alive, but just barely!"

As we gaped in disbelief, we saw that the Avatar—Korra—still had one hand clutching at the platform. With a grunt, she swung Mako up by his collar and dropped into the water. Mako landed on one foot, the other flashing a fireball that knocked Tahno into the first area.

I wanted to scream. We were so close, and then—! I gritted my teeth as Tahno recovered, his face twitching. We would make those Ferrets regret the moment they ever step foot in the arena.

When I next looked back at him, Tahno's signature smirk was back in place. The Ferrets were hurriedly conversing, and we expected them to play dirty to match us. But, Tahno's face said, the ref would call any foul moves the Ferrets pulled.

However, the idea didn't stop me from being annoyed. The bell rang for round two, and I funneled my anger into my firebending, kicking a wave of flame at Bolin. He dodged it and sent two discs straight towards my chest. Just in time, I rolled out of the way. If those had hit me, they probably would have knocked me back a section.

I saw that Tahno had trapped Korra's foot in a chunk of ice. He dispatched her with a swift, well-placed kick, and I laughed as she flew across the platform. With a shout, Bolin fired a disc at my stomach.

It hit me straight on, and I doubled over. My laughter was replaced by burning anger, and I lashed out at the Ferret closest to me—Mako. I punched the air, unleashing jets of flame at his stern face. By some stroke of luck, he ducked so that the flames passed an inch above the glass front of his helmet.

He shot me a glare as the ref announced a tiebreaker. The Ferrets won the coin toss, and Tahno stepped forward to meet Korra's challenge. "Come on, little girl," he taunted. "Show me what you got."

Korra called up a blast of water that knocked Tahno's helmet into the stands and swept him off the platform. He didn't even get the chance to fight.

I thought my jaw had actually hit the floor. Tahno, defeated so easily? Ming and I helped Tahno, his perfect hair mussed, to his feet. He no longer looked like the smug, self-assured man I'd fallen in love with. He looked…ordinary. He looked beaten.

But only for a moment. As the third round began, he regained himself. The three of us attacked in perfect combinations. Ming shot discs out with impeccable timing. Tahno blasted water in every direction. I flipped over Ming's back and released a wall of fire that singed Bolin's hair and nearly knocked Korra over. We had found our rhythm, and we were going to show these upstarts exactly how we had won three championships.

Why were they still standing? I noted with increasing frustration that they blocked all of our moves, and sent attacks back that equaled ours in strength. Calling on every ounce of white-hot anger filling my body, I flashed with fervent flames. I thought, for a moment, that I had taken Mako out, but he emerged from my fireball unscathed.

_Damn_, I thought. _Can anything take them down?_

It appeared that Ming and Tahno were thinking the same thought. Ming called up three discs and crushed them, and Tahno enveloped the remains in jets of water. With expert aim, he hit all three Ferrets with brutal headshots, knocking them off their feet and into the water.

"Knockout!" the ref pronounced.

"I barely broke a sweat," Tahno said, taking off his helmet. "Anybody else want to scrap with the champs?" He waved a fist threateningly, and I remembered just why I liked him so much. He knew what he wanted and he made sure he got it.

I heard some shouts of "Boo!" from the crowd, but I ignored them. We had won our fourth championship in a row! We had taken down the Avatar and her pet street rats! We were on our way to breaking Pro-Bending records!

As we congratulated ourselves, I noticed flashes of blue lighting in the stands. Was this some new form of celebration? I hoped it was in honor of me. I was tempted to bend lighting in response, but Tahno swept me up for a kiss.

He tasted coppery, like blood, his lips meeting mine at a perfect angle. I ran a hand through his soft, purple-black hair and traced the sharp contour of his jaw. He pulled me closer and—

Ming separated us. "Uh, can you guys control yourselves for just a minute? Something's happening here."

My ears registered the screams of the crowd and I realized, belatedly, that the lighting was not a display for my benefit. It was an attack!

"What do we do?" I breathed.

"I don't know," he said.

For the second time tonight, he looked absolutely dumbfounded. We stood there, unable to move, as the center platform rose carrying armored chi-blockers—and the masked figure of Amon!

We were pro-benders, sure, but we were athletes, not street fighters. What would happen when there were no rules? All we could do was trust our instincts. We drew back into ready positions and braced ourselves.

Tahno inhaled harshly. "All right," he said, "you want a piece of the Wolfbats? Here it comes."

He flung a jet of water at Amon, but the leader sidestepped it with a grace I didn't expect. He moved past Tahno and headed for me.

It was not fury now, but fear that fueled my bending, and perhaps that was why I lost the fight. Fireballs sprang from my palms, but Amon somehow dodged my attacks, twisted my arms behind my back, and forced me to the floor. I cried out in pain, only to see that my teammates had been taken down in a similar manner.

The Equalists bound us and held us in kneeling positions. I felt cold sweat trickle down my face. I'd heard that Amon could take away bending, but surely—

No, he couldn't. He couldn't!

But he raised a palm above Tahno's face. Tahno must have come to the same conclusion as I had. "Wait!" he said. "Please don't do this—I'll give you the championship pot—I'll give you everything, just please don't take my bending!"

Amon pressed his thumb to Tahno's forehead as one of his lieutenants pressed his thumb to mine. It felt like he was shooting a thousand searing needles through every inch of my flesh, followed by a freezing sensation so cold that it burned. I began to weep and realized that it didn't matter who saw. Nothing mattered but the pain, the pain greater than any pain I had felt before, that wracked my tired body with the force of a raging typhoon.

And then it left, and I felt a horrible emptiness.

They pushed us into the water.

I barely felt the chill as I plunged down. I had no energy left to struggle or try to free myself from my bonds. What good was I without my bending? What could I do? It was my passion, my knowledge, my job. Without firebending, I was better off dead.

I sank to the bottom of the pool. It felt—nice. Peaceful. I wouldn't really be without my bending for a long time. I would have all my old skills in the afterlife.

I closed my heavy eyelids and—

A hand gripped my shoulder pad and pulled.

I broke the surface with a gasp, flat on my back on the platform. "Are you okay?" a voice asked. The firebender—Mako. Firebender.

Tears stung my eyes as I took heaving breaths. Maybe…maybe I was okay. Maybe I was just freaking myself out. I raised a hand and went to my inner bellows, the mental space I used for bending. I summoned a fireball and—

Nothing.

I was not a bender anymore.

"Kizu," Mako said, shaking my shoulders. "You have to get out of here…"

He said more, but I forgot what the words were even as they left his mouth. I saw Bolin helping Tahno onto the platform, and Ming coughing up pool water. I watched as they, in turn, tried to bend. They failed.

The emptiness filled me, taking over my mind and chilling my firebender's heart. In a few short minutes, we had gone from being the best benders in Republic City to not being benders at all. Our very identities had been taken from us.

If I thought Tahno had looked beaten before, I had never known the meaning of beaten.

Ming collapsed in a heap on the platform, looking half his normal size.

And as for myself, I was no longer wild Kizu, queen and champion. I was a soggy, sniveling wreck.

And it was then, as I saw the fire leave my teammates' eyes and knew it had extinguished in mine, that a new feeling took over: revenge.


End file.
